re: What were your most surprising things about retirement?

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In 30 years, your 5M will only generate 25K of buying power.

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Fear tactics from a financial advisor. We cancelled ours a few years ago and never looked back. I’ll keep my extra 1% earnings

Anyone here able to touch on if estimating that you will maintain your same expenses as when working is a good strategy? It feels overly conservative to me, but I’m 30 years out so it makes a huge difference in my projections

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As someone that is 30 years away from typical retirement age, what have others done to prepare for retirement? What do you wish you had done earlier?

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Spend more, travel more live more now

Don’t wait

Save/invest but don’t live so frugally that you are happy with what’s in the bank but you failed to live and enjoy the energy you have now

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It feels overly conservative to me

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It is. Even with increased travel, you are likely to have much fewer expenses in retirement vs your prime working years (assuming you are adequately covered and aren't unlucky healthcare wise).

When you're working you're probably also raising kids and paying all their shite. You go through stuff much quicker in your prime working years. You outgrow houses, cars, etc.

You can also much more easily stomach doing things that are slower, but cheaper. You pay for speed/convenience in life. You don't need so much of that when you aren't devoting the vast majority of your mental energy to work.

All that being said, you should definitely still consider that you will probably need to pay for a roof replacement or a new water heater or make some sort of 4-5 figure home repair at one or more points in your retirement years. Having a paid off forever home is great when entering retirement, but if that retirement lasts 25+ years you are probably going to have to fix/replace a lot of shite.

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2055 5 million? Yes, still comfortable

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To be fair, we don't know what $5M will buy in 2055, because right now, it is just a number. If we have extended periods of runaway inflation, then $5M may be the right number.

However, if inflation dictates that you need $5M, then interest rates would sky rocket, salaries would go way up, etc, and you going through life saving 15% will probably reach that goal without trying.

I think the point everyone is saying is that if you don't have to kill yourself trying to get to some astronomical number to retire. You can live very comfortably on much less, and the vast majority of people do. If you want to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous, then go ahead and do it.

I think people are better served looking at their tax situation in retirement and where they can live to minimize their tax load.

For example, post age 65 in Georgia. Social Security is not taxed in Georgia. Additionally, investment income up to $65000 a year is not taxed by the state of Georgia. In my situation, that's about $130k a year with no state income tax burden between SS and investment income.

My federal taxes in the current system would come out to just about $10k a year which leaves $10k a month to live on. I can easily live on $10k a month in retirement, do the traveling I want to do and still put money back into investments each month.

To me, to determine how much you need you first need to work it from the other side and see how you can make that income work to your advantage by planning what you expect out of your later years. IOW, it's more about the proper income stream and maximizing it than it is determining some big pile of money that you "think" you will need.

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Don’t forget about healthcare, health insurance. That will turn into an out of pocket expense for me in retirement, that I currently don’t see if I analyze my monthly cash flow.

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Does your employer currently pay for 100% of your health care? I know that my current monthly share of my health care premium is more that my Medicare premium will be. Even putting the add-on on it will still cost me less.

Gotcha. My wifes Medicare payment deducts the premium same as a paycheck.

She still runs a small bookkeeping business so she is able to deduct the premium on our tax return until she fully retires.

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My financial advisor runs the models and tells us approximately how long we could go and not run out of money.

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If you dont know what method and assumptions FA is using you should really dig into those before making decision to keep working or not. Then, if you are confident in their methods seems like a no brainer to step away if you can support 130% of current spending ($160k drawdown vs $120k today)
Is it inflation adjusted and what withdrawal rate is FA projecting?

Sounds like you have it together!

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I often think should we do more, tomorrow isn't a certainty for anyone and will we need as much money in retirement as we think. I guess this is a good problem to have!

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Presume if you read Boglehead, you are familiar with firecalc.

I would estimate your retirement entry expenses (essential and non essential) and project retirement expense needs across retirement years. Work backwards from there: how much does your retirement nest egg need to be at point of retirement, after including pension and SS cash flows.

The nest egg you need should be risk-tested (ie, will it meet cash flow needs of your retirement expenses in below (P75) and significantly below (P90) market conditions.

Therein, you will answer your question:
Do more, same or less?

Too much focus on nest egg amount. While important, IMO it is more important to focus on retirement cash flow needs - to then back in to nest egg target (risked).